Page 69 of Keeping Laryn
“Sleep well. You need to be rested for tomorrow’s reconnaissance flight, then the mission tomorrow night.”
“I will. You too. Don’t need my mechanic screwing up any easy shit, like not checking oil levels because she was up all night, dreaming of her hunky pilot.”
Laryn burst out laughing and rolled her eyes as she shook her head. “Not conceited at all, are you?”
“Nope. Not at all.”
They stood there for a beat before Casper forced his feet to move away from her. “See you at the mess hall in the morning.”
“Yeah.”
He turned and headed back the way he came, feeling a hole in his gut at walking away. Truthfully, he didn’t like the feeling. It made him question what the hell he was getting himself into for a split second. Then he shook off the thought. Would he rather go back to being alone and not having stomach pangs and feelings of uneasiness…or deal with working with the woman he was sleeping with, who made him laugh and had his back at all times?
It was an easy decision.
Learning how to be romantic partners with someone he worked with was going to take some time, but Casper was ready for the challenge.
“Tomorrow night? Perfect. I’ve got people ready to intercept,” Altan said, satisfaction heavy in his tone. “How’re you going to get her into that chopper?”
He listened as the man on the other end of the line explained what he’d done.
“There’s no guarantee it’ll work, but I’ve got some ideas to make the situation even more urgent. To make it seem like they have to take off immediately or be grounded. Guarantee those hotshot pilots won’t want that. And from what I’ve learned of the mechanic, she won’t let them leave without knowing exactly what’s wrong with her precious chopper.”
“This needs to work,” Altan threatened.
“And like I said, there’s no guarantee. It’s not exactly easy to get a fucking mechanic off this ship, especially to get her inserted into the middle of a top-secret mission. You should be thanking me, not threatening me,” the man growled.
Altan did his best to rein in his temper. He needed to get his hands on Laryn Hardy, and he had no choice but to depend on others to make it happen. Yes, he could wait until she was back on US soil and get one of his contacts in the Norfolk area to break into her apartment and spirit her away, but then he’d need to get heroffUS soil, which was even more difficult than getting her off that destroyer.
No, if he could get his hands on her while she was in his territory, he’d have more support from his government. After all, entering the country without proper documentation or permission would mean he could brand her a spy. Keep her under lock and key, force her to use her expertise on their newly acquired MH-60s.
Her being on that chopper when it went into the mountains to retrieve the soldiers nosing around, looking for assholes hiding in the nooks and crannies, was paramount.
Altan didn’t give a shit about ISIS. They were more annoying than anything else. The ragtag group of men and boys in themountains would be dealt with later. And hell, if America wanted to come in and take care of them for his country, that was more than all right by him.
His only concern was Laryn. In order to increase their military strength and defend their territory, he needed the knowledge she had in her head. She’d share that with his people or die. He’d make sure of it.
“Let me know how it goes down,” Altan ordered.
“I’ll be in touch when I can. Not sure when that’ll be, as my ass will probably get chewed out for this stunt I’m about to pull. The money you promised better be in my account by tomorrow morning.”
“It will be. And don’t fucking threaten me again,” Altan said, before severing the connection.
He sat back in his chair and pressed his fingertips together under his chin. This had to work. It just had to. He needed that American bitch. It wasn’t even natural that she was a mechanic. She should be home having babies and serving a man. But the fact that the best MH-60 technician in the world was a female would hopefully make her easier to break.
“Come to papa,” he whispered, before reaching for the phone once more. He needed to make sure the men he had in place on the ground were ready. It was going to take quite a few people to move Laryn from the mountains to his facility. Hopefully during that time, she’d figure out that her best option was to do whatever she was told, as soon as she was told to do it.
If she was cowed and broken by the time she arrived at his doorstep, all the better.
Feeling hopeful, Altan dialed a number and waited impatiently for his contact on the other end to pick up.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Laryn watched carefully as the MH-60s Tate and his fellow Night Stalkers would be flying to pick up a group of Navy SEALs were moved to the top deck of the destroyer. She didn’t know what the special forces troop was doing in the mountains, and she didn’t want to know. All she cared about was making sure the helicopters were in proper working order and that nothing went wrong while Tate and his team were doing what they did best.
She’d seen videos of some of the things the Night Stalkers put their choppers through, and they made her heart lodge in her throat. The places they were able to go, the risks they took, it was terrifying. But watching those videos made her all the more determined to give them the proper tools to do their job. That’s how she looked at what she did. She was a tool in their arsenal, nothing more, nothing less.
The area around her was a hub of activity, with mechanics and sailors moving here and there and calling out to each other. But all of Laryn’s attention was on the three helicopters that had been used earlier for the reconnaissance flights and then stored back below decks until now. She wanted to make sure nothing happened to them as they were moved. This was nothing shehadn’t seen or done hundreds of times before. But it was one of the most crucial last steps. The last thing she wanted was one of the rotor blades brushing against the side of the hold as a chopper was raised.
